Christopher Nolan reveals his favorite film of 2024. Nolan is the visionary director behind blockbusters like the trilogy of the Dark Knight, Inception,
Interstellar e Dunkirk. His latest film,
Oppenheimerearned nearly a billion dollars at the box office and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. While there won’t be a new film released in 2024, Nolan’s next film made headlines this year for its all-star ensemble, including
Matt Damon, Anne
Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert
Pattinson, Charlize
Theron, Tom
Holland and Lupita Nyong’o.
Nolan’s next film, which is expected to begin filming in early 2025, will also use brand-new IMAX technology.
Like most directors, Nolan is often influenced by the work of others and occasionally shares his opinions on other directors. From a young age,
Nolan was deeply inspired by the work of directors like Ridley Scott, Star Wars Of George
Lucas and the big one Stanley Kubrickespecially from his science fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. More recently, Nolan praised The
Curse – played by Nathan Fielder, Benny Safdie
ed Emma Stone – come “innovative” and also gave a rave review to Godzilla: Minus Onecalling it “an extraordinary film”.
Christopher Nolan chooses Gladiator 2 as his favorite film of 2024
Christopher Nolan sceglie Gladiator 2 as favorite film of 2024. Directed once again by Ridley Scott, this time with a screenplay written by David Scarpa, the sequel follows Luciothe son of Maximus and Lucilla, as he becomes a gladiator and fights in the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical emperors of Rome. Paul Mescal leads the cast of The gladiator 2 in the role of Lucio together with
Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz and Derek Jacobi.
Now, as filmmakers choose their favorite films of 2024 for the new article of
Variety, Christopher Nolan revealed that Gladiator 2 it’s his favorite movie of the year. The director praised the sequel for seamlessly integrating the intimate emotional depth of its predecessor with the expansive demands of a modern sequel, while delivering visually stunning, meticulously staged action in service of the film’s themes. Nolan admires Ridley Scott’s ability to use spectacle – like the sharks in the Colosseum – not just to entertain, but to reveal the audience’s complicity in sensationalism, holding a mirror up to our cultural obsessions. Read Nolan’s full explanation below:
In Ridley Scott’s first “Gladiator”, Massimo asks us: “Aren’t you having fun?” and puts us face to face with the truth of why we visit the Colosseum through film. Scott knows we’re not there to learn about Roman culture; we are there to see our dark desires from a comfortable distance. But he is too experienced a director to be caught drawing parallels with our time. Let the world of “Gladiator II” speak for itself, showing us once again who we are by simply inviting us to enjoy the mad inflationary ride. Why are there sharks in the Colosseum? Because we ask for them, and Scott gives them to us masterfully. As it reveals how games are used to manipulate public opinion, we can’t help but see the shadows of our own public arena cast in the sand.
Like the best long-overdue sequels, “Gladiator II” has to be a remake and a sequel in one, and it’s a testament to Scott’s skill that he manages to balance the individual pathos of the original with the expansionist demands of the central theme of the sequel, bringing with it a lifetime of experience in tone control. Scott raises the bar with action staging: his incredible, hyper-observant multi-camera staging (so different from that of the original) makes the action masterfully transform into a clear and stunning sequence . The effect is not only to entertain, but to raise awareness of the film’s themes. Few directors have worked so invisibly on multiple levels. In films like “Blade Runner,” “Thelma & Louise” and “Gladiator II,” the visual density of Scott’s art serves as a backdrop to his thematic clarity.
Pedro Pascal in Gladiator II. Photo Credit: Cuba Scott/Cuba Scott – © 2024 Paramount Pictures.
Despite his success, Scott’s contribution to the evolution of cinematic storytelling has never been adequately recognized. The visual innovations brought to cinema by him and his colleagues from 1970s British adland have often been dismissed as superficial, but critics of the time missed the point: the sumptuous cinematography and meticulous design brought a new depth to the visual language of films, a mise-en-scène capable of telling us what the worlds they portray could be like. This is never more clear than in the masterful opening shot of “Gladiator II,” where Paul Mescal’s hand delicately cradles the grain harvested by the swaying of the original film.
